7pm, my friend dropped me back in the office area after a tender presentation. I had my dinner and remembered that I need to buy some bathroom stuffs (thanks to the writings on my palm … literally). Picked up my stuffs and proceeded to counter. I greeted the shop assistance and not sure if she is sociable or I was extremely sociable today, this mid 40 years old lady told me that her work starts at 9 in the morning and finishes at about 9 at night. That is 12 hours everyday. And then, she told me that she is actually working on two jobs – a legal firm by day and at Guardians by night. That is pretty inspiring. And she looks so happy and told me that her night job is not so demanding as though she is enjoy it. That is the amazing part.
Author: Wilfrid
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Oh God, I Am So Late!
“Oh God, I am so late!” was the first statement that came to my mind when I finally digested what the digital numbers on my air-con remote control meant.
I wanted to sleep early. I really did. Then I chanced upon a video of “World of South Park Warcraft” at YouTube. World of Warcraft is properly one of the world’s most popular online game at present and I love South Park too. South Park has made an episode out of the new cult of online gamers and I knew that if I didn’t watch it last night, that video would have been banned by YouTube once the hit-rate of that video skyrocketed (due to copyright issue). The entire video was closed to 25 minutes and it was pure hilarious. Of course if you don’t play WoW at all, you probably won’t be able to make much sense out of it.
By the time I was in bed, I only had like 5 hours to sleep. Cynthia needed to get up at 4.45am to catch her 6am flight to KL. I have no idea why she spent so much time going through her wardrobe high and low. I must say by the time I tried to get back to sleep, the sky was starting to brighten up (read: 7am).
I needed to get up at 7.30am for the full day retreat at a military camp. When my alarm clock rang, I went straight back to sleep and had this very vivid dream of a retreat … but this time round, it was two buses full of people at some remote area. And what’s up with the girls wrapped in towels outside the hotel rooms?! (Oh well, that is another story.)
Anyway, in my dream, I “realised” that it was not the reality. The reality was that I needed to be at the military camp.
I sprang out of bed, starred at the time on my air-con remote control and it said 8:05am. I was like … hmmm … that was not too bad as the meeting started at 8.45am. And then I thought, hmmm I needed to meet my colleagues at the guard house at … OH MY GOD 8.15am! I still could not register the gravity of the situation. My mind was working backward. The camp is just 15 minutes drive from my house … I usually take about 45 minutes to get ready and … CRAP I AM LATE!
At 8.45am, I appeared at the Mess, where the retreat was located, feeling breathless after four flights of stairs. Don’t ask how I made it but I did make it.
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Hazy Hazy Day
When I left office on Friday evening, the air was hazy. I could even smell the burning ashes that came all the way from our neighboring country Indonesia. Over the weekends, the situation has worsen and the PSI (Pollutants Standard Index) has, at one time, hit 150. Anything beyond 100 is unhealthy so you can imagine.
Ever wonder where PSI comes from? It is actually a measurement of Sulphur Dioxide, PM10, Ozone, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide. I have no clue on what is what but PM10 is mainly contributed by the Indonesia fire from what I read.
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One Raffles Quay
When I first took up the housing loan from ABN Amro, the branch was at a landmark location just opposite Stanchart Bank at the CBD area. Since then, ABN Amro has moved into one of the floors at that building opposite Golden Shoe car-park to recently I found out, One Raffles Quay (ORD). ORD is resided in the area that the government has earmarked as the new extension of the CBD. ORD is also where my new office will be come this December.
I entered ORD via a brand new underpass. The new building is pretty impressive. I have to exchange my IC for an electronic pass in order to get through the gates placed just outside the elevators. ABN Amro has a special counter just to help customers to change passes (which is sort of inconvenience if you were to ask me).
I chatted with some of the staffs from ABN Amro and I realised that they don’t really like the new building. I wonder why. Perhaps it is further away from the food outlets and the MRT station?
Towards the end of the first day’s Facilitation class, our trainer divided us into 4 groups and asked each group to prepare a warm-up / energizer for the next day. Our group rolled the highest score so we would go first and do the warm-up first thing in the next morning. When the day ended, the lady who rolled the dice for us got up and said to me, “I have got a tender to do now so …”. I was like … and then another lady got up and said, “I have never done energizer in my life before so …”. And I was like … Need not to say, my 3rd lady member also got up and said, “Well, you and I run retreats all the time but we always get help from our associates. So I have no clue on what to do.” All 3 ladies walked out on me and I was like, “Huh? I am supposed to do this?!”
On my way to my car, I thought about it briefly. During dinner, I forgot to think about it. I was supposed to research from the Internet but I did not bother with it. Before going to bed, I did not even want to think about it.
In the morning, I started to panic about it. When I started the car, I started to think about it. At the first junction, I turned to Cynthia and told her that, “Look love, I need some help.” I explained what I needed to do in less than 60 minute’s time and we were like … starring at the traffic just thinking … or the lack of it.
At the second junction, I suddenly screamed, “A quiz!”. “A what?!” Cynthia asked. “Do a quiz as warm-up!”. I was so excited that I asked if she has paper with her. No, she answered. I tried to search through my wallet (while driving) and before I found a nice piece of paper, Cynthia dug up 2 pieces of petrol receipts from nowhere. I passed her the pen and we went … blank.
“Hey, you read a lot of Life section right?!” I inquired (Life section is the entertainment section of a local newspaper).
She: “Err … ya but …”
Me: “Can’t you think of something?!”
She: “Err … no …”
Me: “…..”
She: “…..”
Well, it was actually quite a fun thing for us to do and I have even forgotten to monitor my speed when I went pass the speed camera. Anyway, we have come up with 15 cool questions in the category of current affairs, sport, entertainment, movies, and books for the groups and they were (see how many questions you can answer!) as follows.
- How many years of independence does Singapore have?
- Husband of Britney Spears?
- What nationality is tennis player Roger Foderer?
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being is written by?
- Name the 2nd and 4th runner-ups of World Cup 2006.
- Who is the main actress in the TV series Ghost Whisperer?
- Name the Singapore Idol judge who was previously a radio DJ.
- Name the President of Indonesia.
- Who is the female Malaysian singer who just got married?
- Name the 2 main actresses in The Devil Wears Prada.
- Dave Grohl is the vocalist of which band?
- Name the latest album from Justin Timberlake.
- Name the new baby boy of Britney Spears.
- JK Rowling is the author of which series?
- Name the Asia actress in Miami Vice.
- Who are the 2 finalists left in Singapore Idol.
Footnote: The quiz went well. I think everyone was thoroughly entertained as we have lots of laughters. I immediately texted Cynthia, “The quiz was a blast, thank you”.
Categories
DIY – Silicon Gel
The contractors who reattached my cabinet that covers the rubbish outlet have done a lousy job. Crawling insects kept visiting my home. So I have decided to take matter into my own hands. My task was simply to remove the (transparent) silicon gel and reapply the more tasteful white silicon gel sealing up every possible gaps.
I have seen my dad done it zillion times back in Hong Kong (but never have done it myself). Knowing exactly what I needed, I visited a hardware store and bought the right tools (see below).
Just looking at those things, how much do you think it costs? Cynthia thought the “gun” was sold at S$20 and the gel itself is S$10. I thought likewise to be honest. When the boss told me that the “gun” cost S$3 (and the gel for S$3.80), my initial reaction was, “Huh? 30 dollars?”, and was about to pull out the ten dollar bills. He repeated, “3 dollars, 3 dollars!”.
After I got home, I gave my dad a call. Anyway, to share the experience with you, step one is of course to attach the gel into the “gun”.
Step 2 is to attach the nozzle and cut it diagonally.
Step 3 is to slow depress the trigger and you can see silicon gel starting to ooze out of the noozle. Steadily apply the gel to the gap.
Step 5 is to cover your nose … kidding … alright, the acidic smell could be overwhelming but the last step is important. I suggest you wrap your finger with a small piece of cling wrap and trace the gap steadily. Rub the excess gel off a paper kitchen towel.
Allow a full day for the silicon gel to harden and there you are! You can be the next DIY Expert!
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Of Elephant and Duck
Day 1 of the Facilitation course at British Council, as icebreaker, the trainer asked us to think of an animal that best described ourselves and why (the activity was called “Animal Magic” by the way). So, some said dog, cat, lamb, hamster, cow, and some said lion, tiger, and eagle (I chose eagle because of the sense of freedom and the love for bird-eye views). And we were divided into two groups – the wild animals and the domesticated ones.
Then we were given the exercise of choosing an animal that best described our own company and some other questions such as the animal’s habitat, what this animal needs in order to survive and so on. Our group – the wild animal group – almost immediately associated our company to the most ancient animal on Earth (due to our company’s size and its legacy). We chose an elephant in the end and talked about how elephants left the footprints on all corners of Earth (well we did have some dispute with someone who think of himself as a lamb to start with and how the lamb ended up in the wild animal group was due to number imbalance).
The domesticated animal group, on the other hand, chose a duck to represent our company and talked about how ducks survive by keep peddling and feeding on small fish.
It did hit me at that moment through “Animal Magic”, perhaps how we see the world begins with how we see our own self.
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So We Became Paul Twohill Fans?
Yesterday, in the middle of the day, Cynthia screamed, “Look, it’s snowing!”. I was playing computer game when suddenly I heard the howling of wind through the gaps of my door. The raindrops were so heavy that they did look like ice. Coupled with the strong wind, seeing the granularity of the rain swirled downwards was quite a scene. I took some pictures using my phone.
… and a close up …
Back to the main story. Cynthia and I traveled to Jurong (West of Singapore) to attend the birthday lunch of my Godmother. And over there, we have met the aunt of one of the Singapore Idol’s contestant Paul Twohill. This aunt of Paul is really a super-aunt-fan-club-leader and she passionately shared with us the details of Singapore Idol.
(Cynthia in red dress and Paul’s aunt in white jacket … she really does look a bit like Paul, ya?)
Anyway, talking about Singapore Idol, some friends of mine knew that I have got all the prediction of the results correct from Rahimah onwards (that is 6 correct guesses so far as I usually announce my guess on Wednesday). Between Hady and Jon, it is a hard choice and have to see the performance of the final. According to Paul’s aunt, Jon was handpicked by some of the judges (or organizers?) to participate the competition and Hady’s boss (a rich guy who own this big club) is going to pump in S$100,000 to buy the votes. Quite some kind of conspiracy theories.
Oh, Cynthia and I am invited to Paul Twohill’s private party in November (school holiday supposingly) and Paul will sing during the party. Well, it is as though over lunch, Cynthia and I became a new fan of Paul. Reality is that I did vote for Paul during the very first round while Cynthia did vote for him the episode before Paul was eliminated. That was all the “support” we gave.
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Sept 11 – An Eventful Day
Had I not lunched with my cool friend next door, I would have missed a great opportunity to attend to a pretty high level meeting. I don’t normally blog about work at all but this one is a more inspiring one for me at the personal level.
I will save the story of our lunch for later. Upon returned to office at 1pm (pretty rare for me as I usually take a more leisure approach if you know what I mean), my partner dragged me into a meeting that I had no idea what it was about. Before I knew it, I was driven in her S-class Mercedes to HP and met the top guns from HP as well as a 3-Star General (and a 1-Star too). In my course of work, I have not met anyone beyond 1-Star so it was a big deal to me. The Managing Director of HP as well as the Asia Pacific Japan MD are both ladies. They are both very charismatic and articulated, especially the APJ MD. Just listening to them sharing their experiences made the trip worthwhile.
Then we traveled to SingTel and met the CEO and his team. A totally different feel and it was very business like. And the top floor of SingTel’s Comcenter has a great view of Singapore.
Now, back to my lunch with this cool friend JD (his picture below). I met him during the training at British Council. JD is a Vietnamese who works in Singapore for a couple of years and he took me to this wonderful Vietnamese restaurant just behind Boat Quay.
I let him made the order and the food was delicious. We had two starters and the main course was a dry beef noodle with soup that has a raw egg! He scoped the egg up and took it down in one gulp. I was like … oh wow … you do that?! And I followed suit.
And to round up to story, I can’t help but to post the picture I have taken on the way to lunch.
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Four Downs and Two Ups Ain’t That Bad?
A day of ups and downs …
An old friend of mine called me up for lunch and he brought another old friend of ours. They have decided to dine at New York New York and there we were, seated around a small table not unlike the movie setting of the three MoD (Mob of Death) in “Thank You for Smoking”. Except that I am now no longer in their industry anymore. And throughout the meal, the topics were all about what money can buy and how much more money they want. I guess moving into the non-profit industry does open up my horizon in a sense that there is a bigger picture out there whereby people are not only motivated by money such as national defense and nation building just to name a few. One down.
New York New York took over Nooch (that took over half of HMV at Citylink) and I thought the Western food concept must have worked better than Asian noodle. There seems to be quite a crowd. To cut a long story short (so that you can skip to the next paragraph), I will not go back there again. The service was bad as most of the servers cannot speak English (I joked that this is not Beijing Beijing). The servicing is slow (from food to bill). And the burger was the worst burger I have ever eaten in my life. The meat was soggy and tasted nowhere near to beef. The bread was soaked in butter. Just bad. One down.
Round the corner, I visited HMV, my favorite music store in town. Found Iron Maiden’s new CD and I was overjoyed. I listened to the first song and I fell in love with it. Then I walked around and found Tata Young’s new CD (she is from Thailand). I looked at the front cover and I was really tempted to take one home. THOSE LEGS! (see picture below) I did some serious sampling and concluded that if I was to buy that CD, it would have been for the cover. Some songs are nice. Most of them are pretty bad. So I just grabbed the Iron Maiden CD. One up.
Have you ever been inside a meeting room full of executives and you think to yourself, hmmm, perhaps this meeting could have been done in 10 minutes and why do we all have to sit for hours? One down.
Tuesday is usually the day when Cynthia, TK, and myself get together for a movie and a nice dinner. TK was not free so Cynthia decided to dine at Rice Table and do some shopping at Orchard. To those who are new to Rice Table, they serve Indonesian food in a sampling style. Upon arrival, they will bring along 14 dishes with rice and soup. We used to love the place. It is still hard to get a seat inside as booking is always required. Today we tried the food and the standard has gone down. I don’t think I will go back there again. One down.
I am impressed that Cynthia, who are not into high end cosmetic products, actually know more about SK-II than me. Okay. I confess. The only thing I know about SK-II is that it is an expensive but popular skincare brand. She told me that SK-II has Miracle Water. “Miracle Water? Ya right!” was my reply. And behold … one moment I was teasing Cynthia about Miracle Water, another moment, a rather decent looking beautician – fair skin with big eyes – was pouring Miracle Water onto Cynthia’s hand. I saw no miracle but I was too mesmerized by the ritual that I have totally forgotten that. While Cynthia has gotten herself some SK-II stuffs, I did some window shopping myself and decided on getting either Polo’s Black, Armani’s Code, or Dior’s High Energy, or all of the above the next time I transit Changi Airport (which is very soon). For such a happy shopping experience, one up.